The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-10-13

mic tnls system OF TAXATION oh2s re-
manned, We hsve passed through three dis
astrous panics. The furoaces have had to
stop time and time again, and the labor
strikes have been repeated. We cannot
manufacture without customers, and we cam
not depend on home markets exclusively.
The home market cannot make a demand
equal to the home supply. The prices of
our farm products are governed by Liver
pool or European prices. Foreign people
take the surplus of the farm and the de-
mand there fixes the price. What our
manufacturers and farmers want is a mar
ket. They want more customers than
either can find at home. If prohihitory
tariff were adopted, the manufacturers here
could Tx the price here, the farmers would
be compelled to pay it, but who would fix
the price of the farmers wheat and porkP
They say more factories would be the re-
suit and the compe, ition would make the
article cheaper for the farmer. If more
factories produce more competition, and
more competition produces cheaper manu-
factured goods, does it not follow that the
manufacturer would be compelled to pay
lower wages to his hired men or stop busi-
ness? Let our manufactures have free raw
material without taxes, our laboring men
cheaper sugar and clothing; let our manu-
factories have all of South America and
Mexico and Canada, and all the tropical
Islands for market, and you will hear no
more of over production. Solone as your
tariff laws tax diamonds ten per cent. and
woolen goods so per cent; broad cloth 40
per cent, and sugar 70 per cent; so long as
they tax twenty men for the benefit of one
man, so long will labor complain of its
unjust proportion of the burden of
Government. The Republican plat
form of 1884, adopted at Chicago.
upon which Mr.. Blaine was nominated.
pledged the Republican party to revise and
correct the inequalities of the present tar
i'll. The Democrats made the same
pledges. In Congress last winter when
the bill to do that came before the
houses every Republican but three voted
against it. and four out of FIVE Democrats
voted for it. Now it is conceded by eyery
well informed man in this country that the
tariff taxes ought to be reduced; that the
surplus In the treasury ought to be reduced;
that no more money ought to be taken
from the people and locked up in the treas
ury than is necessary for the support of the
government. We all know that the con-
sumner pays all the federal taxes; that
the number Of consumers is daily and rap.
idly increasing, and that the amount of
revenues and the surplus must increase
with the increase of population; the
to clothe the more duties will
be paid. Under the present sys-
tenn of boarding up surplus in the treas
ury the Secretary of the Treasury, to avert a
money panic, has had to 60 into the market
and purchase bonds not yet due for twenty
years at premium of 25 per cent. l
know we are called free traders" when
we demand lower taxes. Did any Demo-
cratic President ever recommend free
trade" in his message? Did any Demo
cratic Secretary of the Treasury ever rec
ommend ''ree trade" in his report? Did
any Democratic Congressman ever intro
duce bill in Congress providing for free
trader" Did not President Arthur rec
emmend reduction of the tariff dues?
Did not Secretary McC Culloch, Republican
Secretary of the Treasury. recommend
reduction of the tariff dues? Did not the
Forty-eighth Congress, Republican Con-
gres', provide for a tariff commission
to investigate the whole subject with
the sole view to reduce the taxes? Did not
that same Republican Congress re-
duce the tariff of 1867 on wool
from so to 80 per cent, and allow
the duty to remain on the manufactured
able reduction on the articles he is COM
pelleds to purchase and he will not COM
plain of the reduction of the wool tariff.
The average wool grower now pays more
taxes on one suit of clothes perhaps made
out of his own wool clip, and the sugar he
buys for his family, than the duty on his
wool amounts to. But gentlemen, deny
the right or authority of Congress to levy
a single mill of tsxes on the people, be-
yond the necessities of the Government.
Do you allow your County Commissioners
OF Marion county to levy ten thousand
year more than the county needs for twenty
years and lock up hu ndred thousand dol
lars of idle money in your county treasury
Can any Republican or Democrat be elect
ed County Commissioner in Marion county
who would advocate such a policy? Do
you permit your town council or your
school boards or your township trustees
to levy more taxes than is required for
local purposes? Does your State Govern
ment do it2 Suppose there was surplus
of one million in the State Treasury at Co
lumbus and some candidate for Governor
would favor its retention there, would you
vote for him2 Is that what Gov. Foraker
meant when he sent a special message to
the Legislature asking that your farm
valuations be increased so that he could
have little more money? His friends
deny taat he wrote such a message, but he
admitted it, and you will find his message
in the Senate journal just as Chairman
DUNCAN printed it.
THE TRUE FRIENDS OF LABOR.
l was greatly astonished to find the fol-
lowing astounding statement in Senator
Sherman's speech at Wilmington, October
Is. In speaking of laboring men Senator
Sherman used the following language:
Every measure in their interests in the
Statutes of Ohio and of the United States
has been put there by the Republican
party. The eight hour law. The statute
books of Ohio are full of laws to protect